ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE AND RESEARCH 



west, and a great barrier of ice blocked it to the south. 

 But an area greater than Europe lay to the south of 

 these discoveries, and many folk believed that it might 

 turn out to be an archipelago of islands like that form- 

 ing the polar lands north of Canada. Indeed, we are 

 not yet certain that such is not the case in part at least 

 in the huge unknown Antarctic regions, but it is to two 

 men, Scott and Shackleton, that our main knowledge 

 of the interior of the new continent is due. 



The British Expedition of 1902 was largely a naval 

 expedition financed by the British Government, but 

 generously aided by private contributions. The *'Dis- 

 covery" was specially built at Dundee and had a regis- 

 tered tonnage of 485 tons. Captain Scott was given 

 command. 



On Christmas Eve, 1901, the ''Discovery" left New 

 Zealand and reached Cape Adare on January 8th (see 

 Figure 6). They coasted down the great mountain 

 scarp of Victoria Land until the twentieth when they 

 entered Granite Harbor, which was considered for pos- 

 sible winter quarters. Thence they sailed eastward 

 along the great Ice Barrier which constitutes the free 

 northern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. On January 

 29th they were south and east of the extreme position 

 reached by Ross in 1842. Still proceeding eastward 

 they sighted and named King Edward VII Land, but 

 found no suitable site for winter quarters and turned 

 back towards MacMurdo Sound. En route at Balloon 

 Bight Scott made the first balloon ascent in Antarctica. 

 On February 8th Scott reached the southwest corner 

 of Ross Island — and here at Cape Armitage he an- 



34 



